Warlock Apprentice

As Tulu wondered if he should keep following Angor and go down into the hatch, a sudden cold gust came from the main entrance and hit his back, convincing him of the safer choice.

“At-at least Mister Padt can protect me if anything bad happens…”

The stairway down wasn’t as dusty as the other parts of the building, but it didn’t feel any better because there was this strong medicine smell in the air.

Thud, thud…

Tulu couldn’t see the end of the stairs with his weak light. As he walked for longer, he grew more stressed until he felt like walking straight down into hell.

“What’s that smell, Mister Padt?” Tulu looked at Angor’s back and decided to say something.

“Oh. Because—”

Angor looked back at Tulu but suddenly stopped moving.

“What-what is it, sir?”

Angor smiled for some reason. “Because the sickbay is down there.”

Tulu frowned as he thought Angor was joking. Sickbay underground? Orphanage?

Another moment later, Tulu began trembling again as he crossed his arms. “Why is it so cold here? The wind outside can’t get this far…”

“Maybe it’s just a draught that slipped in.”

Draught in the basement? Again, Tulu wondered if Angor was simply pulling his leg, but he was feeling too cold to complain right now.

Why does this sickbay feel like a fridge?

Another chilly air current assaulted the back of his neck. At the same time, Tulu believed that he just heard someone giggling.

Wait… that guide told us how everyone around here moved away because they heard children’s voices at night. Could it be…

“Are-are-are we going to run into a ghost, Mister Padt?”

“Nah, we won’t. Look behind you.”

Tulu didn’t understand what “looking back” had to do with not running into ghosts, but he still complied subconsciously.

Once again, he was terribly shocked to see a pair of eyes. Or rather, those didn’t look like eyes since what was inside those sockets were completely black.

Tulu felt like screaming but failed to do so as the cold air froze something in his throat. Since he couldn’t step back in the narrow space, he could only press his back against the wall nearby and took several quick, panicked gasps.

“Mi-Mi-Mister Padt, there-there-that-”

“A common, everyday soul you can find everywhere in the wizarding world. That scared you?” Angor replied in a flat tone.

Tulu looked the other way and saw Angor had already reached the end of the stairway and was now looking at a sealed door.

This thing’s common?! Tulu slowly looked back at the owner of those black eyeballs.

Now that he took a more careful look, he noticed that he was looking at a small boy about the age of seven or eight, who had a dull expression and a dull, ragged shirt. He couldn’t see any particular emotions from those hollow eyes.

The boy’s body was transparent.

Tulu quickly remembered what he learned about undead spirits before. He made sure that the soul of the small boy in front of him wasn’t showing any of the wicked violence that meant trouble.

“But… he’s still scary as hell.”

“I see. Will you feel better if I tell you that kid has been following right behind you since you entered the secret entrance?” said Angor.

“So that’s why I always felt something wrong on my back? Wait, you knew it all along, Mister Padt?”

Angor grinned in satisfaction as his “prank” went through. Of course he saw the stalking soul the moment it showed up. This one barely had any soul energy, and it could do nothing to harm a healthy young man like Tulu as long as Tulu stayed careful enough.

Again, Angor waited until the last moment to reveal the presence of their little tail just to make fun of Tulu.

“Now, who are you, and what do you want from us?” Angor turned around and gazed at the floating child.

The kid bared his teeth. “Roooar! Arrgh!”

“What are you doing?”

“Yarrrr!” The child raised his hands and did a clawing gesture.

“Okay. You are looking cute rather than scary like that.” Angor understood the situation and revealed a wicked grin. “Let me tell you how to scare people properly.”

A gust of black smoke suddenly covered up Angor’s form, and his eyes began glowing with a red light.

“Haw haw haw haw…” Several inhuman laughs were heard from his position.

A circle of dark violet fire began burning brightly under Angor, which startled both Tulu and the small soul for good.

Next, a flaming, fanged skull floated away from where Angor’s head was supposed to be and rushed at the child.

The child never thought that he would be the one being terrified instead and could only shiver in place helplessly.

A moment later, he somewhat recovered from his fear and wanted to run away, only to be blocked by a mist barrier behind him that always sent him back to in front of Angor no matter how many times he tried.

“Can you tell me what you want now?” Angor asked again.

Still shuddering, the child slowly looked back while his empty eyes somehow showed the hint of true fear. He had believed that he was dealing with some kind of devil even though Angor had returned to his original looks.

“Don’t keep the devil waiting, or he’ll come and eat you at night,” Angor mocked.

“You can’t go in there. There’s-there’s-” the kid answered with a whisper, which sounded both creepy and childish.

Angor looked back at the locked door again. “There’s a girl’s soul inside. And she smells… ugh. Bloody. She killed many people, didn’t she? Yet she’s not an undead. Impressive.

“Are you here to stop us from reaching her?”

The child didn’t understand how Angor saw through the door, but he still replied, “She’s Sunny. She… becomes mad when she wakes up, and she will kill anyone alive in sight. She’s much, much stronger than me! Leave at once if you don’t want to die in there.”

The child didn’t seem so confident in his words because he just saw Angor being a “devil”. He was no longer sure who he should be worrying about.

“You’re actually trying to save people’s lives? But weren’t you killed by someone? If I’m not mistaken, the manager of this orphanage murdered you. Don’t you hate humans?”

The boy nodded and once again looked terrified when he recalled the man who killed him. “Yes. It was Director Dison. But that has nothing to do with other people, right?”

Angor gave him a meaningful look. “You know what, I’m glad you can think more clearly than many adults who’re still alive.”

He then turned around and reached a spirit feeler out to pick the door’s lock.

Ka-click!

“Are you sure about this?” The child showed a worried look on his pale face. “Sunny has not done any more killing in a few months, but I know she’s still there.”

Angor pushed the door open and was immediately welcomed by a sharper smell of disinfectant, along with more cold air.

“Yeah, she’s inside. But I don’t think she can do anything to us right now,” said Angor as he cast Light and tossed a bright orb into the room ahead.

Tulu looked further into the room and widened his eyes.

Not far from the entrance, there was a little girl wearing a red skirt trapped in the middle of a magic array drawn by some blood-red substance. It appeared to be real blood.

She seemed to be of a similar age as the boy outside. Moreover, she was staring right at them with an eerie grin, which immediately reminded Tulu of the dress-up toy he saw a moment ago.

“She can’t get out from there, so… we should be safe,” Angor said as he approached the edge of the magic array.

“What’s-what’s happening to Sunny?” It seemed the boy also cared for her. They were probably friends.

Angor crouched down and examined the drawing on the floor.

“Wait… this is not a proper magic array. This blood contained a special type of energy that restrained her.

“But compared to the strange blood, I’d like to know who did this to her.”